updated 12:55 pm EST, Wed March 10, 2010

Bluetooth, e-mail sync raised as issues

Apple, AT&T, Research in Motion and several other companies are being sued by a company based in Frisco, Texas, according to AppleInsider. SmartPhone Technologies charges that seven of its patents have been violated, including ones related to Bluetooth, e-mail sync and some broader concepts associated with smartphones. Other corporations listed in the suit include LG, Motorola, Samsung and Sanyo. With one of the patents only RIM, Motorola and Samsung are listed as infringing.

The suit is being handled through the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, notorious for being friendly to intellectual property complaints. SmartPhone is requesting a jury trial, as well as damages and expenses as compensation. The suit is unlikely to get that far however, as most such legal battles are settled out-of-court through royalties or one-time payouts, if they are not dismissed entirely.

re: Patent trolls....

Re: Patent trolls

How is Apple a patent troll? At least they build products that exemplify the patents they hold, rather than the alternative:

1) Patent a cool idea.
2) Sit on patent for years and never actually make a product that uses said patent.
3) Sue anyone that tries to implement said idea.

The problem is item 2. How do you know they sat on said patent for years? What if you have a great idea and, while trying to find someone to work with to develop it into an actual product, someone comes along and steals it? You don't have a product, nor even anyone yet to work on a product. Yet there's big goliath company using your patent. And when they finally realize they need to sue, they're called a troll because they don't have a product.

I guess in your world the only patents that should be awarded are to companies or people who can afford to actually produce the product...

comment title

yes testudo, that is exactly how it should work. So in your world, if someone has a great idea and, while trying to find someone to work with to develop it into an actual product, someone else has the same idea and comes to market with it sooner (whether their a large company or just another person with a great idea does not matter) then the person still working to find someone to develop the idea into an actual product should be awarded the patent? No.

You are a moron. Please go jump off a very tall structure and be sure to land on your head. We will all be better off from that point forward.

Patent troll definition

I was under the impression that a patent troll was a speculator, that buys up defunct companies with any kind of patents for next to nothing and then tries to find some stretch-of-the-imagination similarity to a product or software that is successful and sues like it was their work. It may not be that they're sitting on it as much as it's a case of it taking them that long to try to "connect the dots".

@appleuzr

So in your world, if someone has a great idea and, while trying to find someone to work with to develop it into an actual product, someone else has the same idea and comes to market with it sooner (whether their a large company or just another person with a great idea does not matter) then the person still working to find someone to develop the idea into an actual product should be awarded the patent? No.

So in your world the person who gets to patent it should be who comes to market first gets the patent? That defies the whole point of a patent, which is to secure YOUR work while you try to get a product to market. Otherwise, again, any small time inventor with ideas would never succeed, since big companies with more funds to throw around would get to market first.

And then Microsoft would be owners of patents for a ton of stuff and then suing everyone. Is that what you want?